Frosty Five

I ran a trail race over the weekend. This year's race was very different from last year. We ran in knee deep snow last year. No snow to run in this year. The snowfall this year was about an inch. It was packed down fast.

It was only 10° at the start of the race with a wind chill of -7°. I think that was the coldest temperature I have ever run a race in. Before the race started, I went out for a warm up. The warm up was going well until I turned around and headed back to my car. That is when the wind was hit me in the face. It was such a cold and bitter wind. I was never so happy to get back into the safety of the trees and out of the fierce wind.

Waiting at the start line for the race to begin. My feet were already numb. My shoes and socks were wet from running in the snow. But it was no time to think about my cold feet. I had five cold, windy and hilly miles ahead of me. This year was the largest crowd on hand. Over 120 runners. The horn finally went off, and we ran on a path that took us into the woods.

I was passed by all of the faster runners immediately. I fell towards the middle of the pack. I got into my own rhythm until we hit the single track. I was third in line behind some high school girls. My pace really slowed down. I had to wait until we got off the single track and onto a larger path to pass. The lady in front of me had the same idea. We both ran around the girls.

We left the larger path and it was back onto single track. I was happy to get away from the slower girls. I even passed a high school boy on this path. Score one for me. I ended up catching a woman and a man after running down a huge downhill that lead to an open field. The open field then went back into the woods and onto the trail. This is where the first major climb was.

I was about 10-20 feet back from a guy. As we approached the hill, I noticed he stopped running to walk it. I continued running and caught up to him. There was no way around him. On my right was a dirt wall. On my left was a ledge. I had to stop running and walk behind him. Cresting the top of the hill, I ran around him. So did the guy behind me. He caught up to me when I was forced to walk up the hill.

The guy behind me didn't pass me, but I could tell he was right on my heels. At one point we made a turn, I was able to look back. There were three guys were catching up. In this stretch, I ended up walking up a big hill. I figured I would run up the hill as fast as I could walk it. It only made sense. That was the last hill I walked on the course. The rest of the time I ran.

The guy who was behind me told his friends to hurry up. He didn't want to stop and wait for them. About five minutes later, the three guys caught up. I now had four guys running behind me. They stayed behind in line until we got to an opening. Then they all went around me. When they passed me, it was a huge weight off my shoulders. I hate being the person that holds up others on the trail.

The huge opening led us to the trail again. I ended up catching a man and his huge dog. I was behind them until we ran out of the trail to a paved bicycle path. The bicycle path ended and we ran onto a soccer field, huge a hill, across a driveway and around softball fields. Near the softball fields, a younger guy passed me. He ended up running away from me. I did end up catching him when a slower guy was in front of him.

With less then a mile to go, I was behind two guys. I was staying really close to them. We zigzagged a bunch in this section of the trail, I was so happy when we finally ran out of the woods and onto a driveway. That stretch always seems to last forever. The driveway connected us to the last part of the race. Which was just a short run through the woods. On the driveway, a guy that was running behind me passed. I let him go because it was a guy, not a female.

A short distance ahead of me was the lady who was in front of me at the start of the race. She ran away from me, but she was slowing down. I really wanted to catch her, but I was running out of time. I never caught her. She crossed the finish line 9 seconds ahead of me. I finished in 56:37. My goal was to finish in under an hour. Which I did. Back in 2011, I finished this race in 1:18. It took so long because there was much more snow that we had to run through.

After the race, I had some water, cookies and a small bowl of chili. I decided not to stay for the awards. I didn't stay because I didn't think I would win anything and I needed to shovel snow. Later that day, I looked at the results online. I was shocked to see that I was first in my age group. I beat the second place woman by over 2 minutes. It is rare for me to win my age group. I work hard at running and it is nice to see all of my training pay off.